Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown!

On Sunday, my roommates had about 20 Russians, mostly students or former students, all girls, over to the apartment for a Thanksgiving shindig. We had 2 small turkeys and tons of stuffing, maccaroni and cheese, biscuits, and an odd greenbean cassarole. We had piles of food; all the girls daintily picked at their strange American food. So we had piles of leftovers, which have been fantastic in my lunches this week. It's funny. A lot of other expats celebrated Thanksgiving early because they have to work on Thursday and can't take the day to cook, so I've noticed quite a few Americans in the teachers room with turkey sandwiches. During our shindig on Sunday, I downloaded "Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown!" to show everyone, but I don't think the Russians quite grasped the cultural significance of ol' Charlie Brown. Maybe that's how they feel about Americans reading Pushkin... 

You know the thing that's been the hardest to adjust to? Watching soccer at night rather than in the morning. In the US, it's possible to watch live matches and still go out in the evenings and do things. In Europe (Russia especially because of the time zones it's in), I have to choose: do I grade those homework assignments or watch the soccer game? Do I go hang out with those friends and hope we'll go to a venue with a tv that has the channel for the game or do I stay home where I know I have the channel for the game? Such was the situation last night as Zenit played Juventus in the Champions League; needless to say, I didn't end up grading any papers last night.

It's really winter now. The snow just doesn't go away. It blows my mind. I've never lived in a place where the snow doesn't go away after a day or two. There was that one time a few years ago where the snow stayed, what, 5 days maybe? Every day, I look out my window and I'm amazed it's still there.